This is Your Brain on an RFP

Thursday, November 4, 2010

For those of you who have never had the "pleasure" of responding to a Request For Proposal, this is the inevitable result of such an exercise, for everyone involved. Seriously - who thinks RFPs are a good idea? Who? I'll bet those people think Sarah Palin epitomizes intellectual thought in this country, too.

Can you guess what I'm doing this week? Can you guess who ran out of pre-posted content for her blog this morning? Can you guess whose blog content promises to be a bit thin for the next week or so as I put this to bed and also complete the other work and home-related tasks for which I bear responsibility? Can you guess who will probably be counting her own fingers and giggling incessantly to herself by the middle of next week?

I knew you could.

13 comments:

vince said...

I've done those. It's even worse, by the way, when the people who did the RFP don't really know what an RFP is, and you get to guess and what they actually want from you.

Janiece said...

Vince, I thought all RFPs were written that way. I've been responding to them for over ten years, and I have yet to see one that's not repetitive, contradictory, mutually exclusive and unclear.

They're the worst possible example of management by committee.

John the Scientist said...

Uh, I think I've sent out, oh...maybe...hundreds... of RFPs over my career. o.O

In my defense, my company requires triple proposals for every project over $100,000. If I know I am only going to use a certain vendor, sometimes I game the system and split the project into two so it's under $100 K and I don't waste the time of people I know I'm not going to use (I'm producing a follow-up video to one I did last year, going to use the same vendor, so the story design and animation and voice-overs and polish will be three different projects to keep everything off the triple bid list).

When I do send out an RFP, I read every response, and sometimes have even changed my mind about which form to use based on a stellar proposal. So it's not a total waste of time, though I do have a good idea who I want when I send one out...

John the Scientist said...

And I alone, or one other guy and I write all my RFPs - I tell you exactly what I want. Now, if you bring something new to the table, it puts you in that "change my mind" category, so it's good to be creative on my RFPs.

Janiece said...

John, RFPs are only useful from a vendor perspective if you're the one who the customer has in mind when they issue it. In my experience, 98% of the time everyone else is simply column fodder. And the amount of fodder you provide is directly proportional to how unorganized, contradictory and stupid the questions are.

Call me crazy, but I do not enjoy spending hundreds of hours a year working my ass off so that customers can check off that "three bids" requirement. And since many of the questions have no bearing on the efficacy of the solution proposed, but only serve to show how "smart" the questioner is, I'm really even less interested.

What I'm saying is that the entire RFP model is broken, broken, broken. There simply has to be a better way for customers to be able to make an informed choice.

Anne C. said...

My condolences. Shall I come and visit sometime next week to help you find your marbles? :)

John the Scientist said...

"And since many of the questions have no bearing on the efficacy of the solution proposed,"

Well, there's the problem right there. The RFP model isn't broken, it's just that we've handed the keys to the car AND the liquor cabinet to the teenagers.

Generally my RFPs run as follows:

- Here is the stage of the project we're in.

- Here's a short background on the technical problem.

- Here's what information we want.

- Here's how we want to use the information and what decisions will be made based upon it.

- Here are some minimum sample sizes or other details we need.

- Here's the audience for the final report beyond the project team.

The rest is up to the vendor.

Proposals need to be open ended in my industry.

Sometimes we're at the flip a coin stage between 2 vendors and the RFP really is how we're going to decide.

Other times, I've changed my mind over my preferred vendor when a stellar proposal has come across my desk.

And more than once my preferred vendor has been so expensive I had to go with the second choice when continuity was not an issue.

mattw said...

I've just recently had to put together the request and send it out. It wasn't a fun process, and reviewing the proposals hasn't been all that great either. Good luck.

mom in northern said...

A committee of one is always a good number.

Janiece said...

John, how many RFPs have you responded to? Because telling me how great your self-selected sample is doesn't address the issue I'm complaining out, since I don't work in your industry or your field.

Megan said...

Sitting on the review committee is no picnic, either.

Warner (aka ntsc) said...

It is even more fun when the vendor you pick for a project isn't the one your VP wants the project to go to.

Especially when the VP's choice is going to learn how by doing this project.

I won, but I don't work there anymore.

My boss gave me crap for not meeting the project deadline and did not like it when I pointed out that I had and with much time to spare. That his boss had decided on the new evaluation using proposals from multiple vendors.

Re-evaluation came up with the exact same vendor/proposal but one year later.

Stacey said...

I've always hated them. As a property manager, they didn't ask the questions I needed answered because guess what, I didn't get to design the form. I almost always knew who I was going to use bc I had prior knowledge of their experience and price rating and whom I was willing to partner with. This didn't exempt me from the requirement. It just made the vendors who never got the job less willing to answer an RFP next time causing me more work finding vendors I KNOW aren't qualified, but needing to check a box. Your job to fill them out sucks, but from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate anyone who fills them out to help me fulfill my job.
I'd be happy to come out next week and help collect marbles with Anne.